From April 1996 to January 1997, a total of 76 Alzheimer's disease (AD) pat
ients and their caregivers were recruited for participation in a comprehens
ive assessment at the Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, a 2,198-bed tertiar
y-care teaching hospital in Taipei, Taiwan. The AD patients responded to th
e Chinese version of the Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument. Primary
caregivers rated the patients using the Symptom Check List-90 (SLC-90) and
the Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist and then rated themselve
s with the caregiving burden scale (CBS), coping strategies scale and the s
hort version of the Geriatric Depression Score (GDSS). The internal consist
ency of the CBS, as assessed by Cronbach's alpha, was 0.849. The correlatio
ns between the CBS, SCL-90 and GDS-S ranged from 0.435 to 0.698, The CBS sc
ores increased with disease progression and were higher among spouse caregi
vers than adult children caregivers. Multiple-regression analysis revealed
that caregivers with higher CBS scores were more likely to have lower educa
tion levels and to use the meaning subscales of coping strategies, and that
these caregivers' patients had greater disruptive behavior and were older
(R-2 = 0.727, p = 0.001). The current study establishes the reliability and
validity of the Chinese version of the CBS for assessment of Chinese careg
ivers of AD patients.